


See Which Way the Cat Jumps

by Heartfiliadaydream



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cat!Keith, M/M, Military! Shiro, Swearing, klance, turned into an animal au, university student paladins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-13
Updated: 2017-08-13
Packaged: 2018-12-15 01:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11796030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heartfiliadaydream/pseuds/Heartfiliadaydream
Summary: See which way the Cat Jumps: Wait and see what happensKeith's life had not been looking up for him lately. He was living alone where he used to live with his brother who had been overseas and was currently MIA. He was barely making it through his university classes (when he bothered to show up) and living off his brother’s military salary. If he had known that the one day he decided to leave his house would end with him covered in fur and in a cage at the animal shelter, he would have stayed home.Part of the Voltron Big Bang 2017





	See Which Way the Cat Jumps

 

If Keith had know he would be finishing his day being wrangled into a cage at the animal shelter, he never would have left the house.

It had started out normal enough, the usual routine of getting up and attempting to drag himself to school for something he wasn’t even sure he wanted to do, but had managed to get a scholarship through his brother’s job. Ever since his brother Shiro went MIA overseas however, his barely-present motivation for school became non-existent and he instead spent most of his time in the library or riding around on his motorcycle. This was one of the rare days he decided to grace the professor with his presence in class, only to be handed a test which he spent five minutes trying to complete before handing back an empty sheet and leaving. 

He decided to take the scenic route home that day, driving through a part of town he’d never been to. Weird shops lined the small side roads he drove down and one in particular caught his eye, the shop sign sporting a peculiar logo. Something about it made him decide to take a look inside.

Later he would regret this decision.

When he went in, he noticed immediately the shop was empty, not even someone working the till… if there was one. From where he stood the shop looked more like someone’s attic than a place of business. Every surface was covered an odd assortment of items, some with dust layered over them, as if they hadn’t been touched in years. 

Still, he wandered in the hopes that he’d figure out why exactly he’d decided to enter into the shop in the first place. 

He had been there for a few minutes when he finally heard signs of someone moving about towards the back of the shop. 

“Hello?” he called out. There were more sounds of movement but no verbal confirmation that someone was there and had heard him. He tried again, calling, “does anyone work here?”

Poking his head around the corner towards where he heard the noise, he swiveled his head to try and find the source of the noise. 

From behind him someone said, “and what do we have here?”

Keith jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice, whipping around and almost knocking over several bottles lining the shelf next to him, barely managing to catch one that had fallen at the end. 

Standing in front of him was an old woman wearing a deep purple cloak with a hood that covered the top part of her face in shadows. For a moment he could have sworn her eyes glowed beneath it. The only other discernible feature she had were twin red tattoos of lines going down her face. 

“Can I help you with something?” she asked.

Keith shook his head. “I don’t think so. I was driving by and something just kinda called me in here.”

She smiled showing off a set of slightly pointed white teeth, and Keith gulped. Something about this woman on the whole was off-putting. 

“Fate has a funny way of bringing things together. What do you believe it was that really brought you here today? It seems as though you have something on your mind.”

“Nothing more than usual,” he told her, unsure why he was even still here. “I think I’m going to leave.”

“No need to be hasty. Take a look around, find what it was that called to you.”

If he was being honest with himself, he felt very unnerved by the place, but there was still  _ something _ that was calling out to him. He set his mind on leaving but something caught his eye while he was walking towards the entrance he’d come through. A cat statue with piercing blue eyes was staring at him on one of the shelves. How had he not noticed it coming in? What little light that filtered through the curtains at the front seemed to shine only on this statue and Keith could have sworn it was watching him.

“Ah, I see you’ve got your eye on this,” the woman said, suddenly behind him, startling him once again. “Very peculiar one, this. I believe it came to my shop about five years ago.”

Keith kept gazing at the cat, and without realizing it, moved his hand up to touch it. When his hand came into contact with the cold stone, he broke out of his mini trance and jerked his hand back. Unfortunately, in the process he managed to catch the edge of his jacket on the cat’s ear and pulled it off the shelf. 

He watched as the statue fell, the whole scene moving in slow motion before he heard the sound of it shattering on the hard floor, a puff of purple smoke rising up from the remains. 

Next thing he knew, he was staring  _ up _ at the lady instead of being more or less at eye level with her. Had he blacked out and fallen over?  

Looking down at himself he let out a shriek.

_ I’m a fucking cat!  _ He thought to himself, alarmed.

“Hey lady, what the hell happened?” he asked her. 

She smiled wickedly down at him. “Seems that object held more power than I’d realized. Who would have thought it had the ability to turn someone into a cat? You should count yourself lucky I have the ability to talk to cats.”

“What? How? Wait, does that mean I’m not actually speaking English right now?”

“Let me properly introduce myself. My name is Haggar, and I am a witch. As for your language question, no you aren’t. To anyone else you’d just be meowing like any other cat.”

“You’re a… a witch?!” he yelled. “How is that even possible? Magic doesn’t exist!”

“Oh, but it does. This is my shop, where many come for magical aid. I take it you did not know that upon entering did you?”

“Of course not! If I had known that this was going to happen I never would have come in the first place!” His eyes were momentarily distracted by the movement in his peripherals which he realized was his own tail slinking back and forth on the floor. Turning his full attention back to Haggar he asked, “if you’re a witch, can’t you just transform me back?”

Haggar laughed and shook her head. “I’m sorry boy - or should I call you kitten - but this magic was not of my doing and so I cannot be the one to undo it. Magic like this is best undone at the hands of those who caused it, which in this case, is you.”

“How the hell am I supposed to undo it? It was an accident! Turn me back you dumb old hag!”

The witch leaned down to him and glared at him. “You’ll never get any help with that kind of attitude. Do you act like this to everyone?”

“What does it matter to you? You probably think this is hilarious and are just fucking with me.”

“While this is quite amusing, I assure you that were it up to me I would turn you back so you could be on your way. You aren’t exactly the type of person or cat I enjoy conversing with. Maybe if you were a little less rude to people trying to help you, the magic would not have done this to you.”

“So you aren’t going to help me. Figures.”

“You should thank your lucky stars I don’t just cage you up and keep you as my pet for the rest of your life. How about you show a little gratitude for my willingess to even consider helping you. Then maybe we can get somewhere.”

Hissing at her, Keith got up on all fours and attempted to jump up onto the shelf from which he’d just knocked the statue over. He missed the first time, earning a bark of laughter from Haggar, but managed to barely get up the second time. 

Now that he was closer to her eye level while she stood, he said, “How about you just tell me how to change back and then I can leave and never have to come back?”

“Are you forgetting that you  _ broke _ something in my shop? I honestly don’t owe you anything, and you’d do well to keep that in mind.”

“Fine,” Keith grumbled. “I’m sorry for breaking your stupid cat statue so can you please change me back to a human?”

She observed him for a moment, looking deep into his eyes. “You don’t particularly like being human though.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You say you want to be a human again, but what exactly about being a human is it that you like so much? I see something inside you that says you’d rather not have to do any typical human things. Am I wrong?”

Keith opened up his mouth to speak again but found she wasn’t  _ entirely _ wrong. Ever since Shiro left he found no real reason to want to do anything. He’d sooner just spend the rest of his life riding his bike all over the country. 

Haggar smiled. “I’m not wrong, am I?”

“Just because I don’t particularly like my life, doesn’t mean I want to spend the rest of it as a cat. So if you could, change me back.”

She shook her head. “I wasn’t lying when I told you I couldn’t do it. This magic has sensed your deepest soul and changed you based on what it saw. The only way for you to turn back is to convince the magic it was wrong. How you do that is up to you though.”

“So I’m basically on my own is what you’re saying.”

“In so many words, I suppose so.”

Keith sighed. How the hell was he going to get out of this one. He then wondered if he had left any of the windows in his place open so he could get in. Unlikely.

“What am I supposed to do about everything in my life? I have a life! What about my  _ bike _ ?”

Sighing while Keith had his momentary freak out, the witch decided she was tired of dealing with this child. 

“Given the fact this happened to you at my shop, I suppose I could keep it around back until you return for it.”

“Return for it? You’re not going to help me?”

“I have already told you that you have to do this yourself. Come back when you’ve figured it out,” she told Keith, picking him up and taking him back out the front door of the shop, where his bike stood next to the sidewalk exactly where he’d left it. Putting him down, she took a quick look around and snapped her fingers when she was sure the coast was clear, making his bike disappear.

“Holy shit, you really are a witch.”

“Goodbye boy. I hope you are back to gather your things soon,” Haggar told him and made her way back inside.

“Wait! How am I supposed to-” he tried to ask her, but she had already slammed the door and flipped over the sign so it read ‘Closed’. “Well shit.”

Unsure of what to do at that point, Keith decided he’d head back to his place and see if there was a way to get in. He knew he wasn’t too far from home, but without his bike and with the lack of long legs he knew it was going to take him longer than usual. 

On the way home he tried to get used to the differences between human and cat physiology He found that he was able to move without much difficulty, his brain having adjusted fairly quickly to the tail and the whole four legs versus two arms and legs thing. He was chased by two dogs, but they had never seemed to like him as a human either. 

By the time he made it back home it was already dark out and he was actually a little thankful for the fur keeping him warm since the nights had grown colder. 

Searching around all the entrances he could find into his home, he was met with the reality that he had not left a single thing unlocked, though even if they were, he wasn’t so sure he would have been able to get in with his missing opposable thumbs. 

By some miracle, he  _ had _ left the small shed that stood in their backyard open just enough that he was able to squeeze himself through the door to shelter him from the wind. 

He found himself curled up on one of Shiro’s summer lawn chair cushions and fell asleep hoping he’d wake up and it would all be a bad dream.

He woke around the middle of the night, finding that it was not in fact a dream, and he was still very much a cat. Stretching out his back and feeling extra feline while he did, he paced around the shed’s floor while he tried to come up with a game plan. 

He decided he’d try going back to the witch’s shop and pleading with her to see if there was  _ anything _ she could do to reverse this, but when he got to the block he thought it had been on, he found that it was empty. A building of the same shape and size was there, but the sign that had hung above the door the day before was gone, not even leaving an outline of where the paint around it would have faded from the sun. 

Around back was empty as well, his bike not there like she had said it would be.

“Damn witch,” Keith growled. He was at a loss of what to do at that point. Going back to his place wouldn’t do anything without a way to get back inside, and it’s not like he had any friends he could go to. Maybe he should try going over to the Holt’s place, Shiro had always been talking about them and their son who he’d gone overseas with. But what would they do for him? 

In the end he decided that he’d do the same thing he would were he human. 

He wandered. 

He steered clear of any place he’d remembered seeing any dogs in the past and ended up around where the university campus was. It was particularly sunny that day and he found himself getting increasingly tired with each sunny patch of grass he walked over. 

_ Right… Cats are nocturnal aren’t they? Maybe I should just have a nap,  _ Keith thought and promptly fell asleep on one of the benches in the university park, directly in the sunlight.

When he woke up, it was because he felt a hand on his neck. Flailing out and hissing - _ another fun cat trait _ -, he remembered where he had fallen asleep and searched for the person attached to said hand.

“Hey, hey, shh, it’s okay little kitty,” a voice said, and he realized not only was there a hand on his neck grabbing his scruff to immobilize him, but they were sitting in a building somewhere he didn’t recognize. “You don’t have a collar so we’re at the vets to see if you’ve got a chip in you.”

He knew for a fact he did not have a chip in him and were it not for the fact he knew there was no way of getting out of this, he would have bitten the girl and run away by now. Plus, her hands stroking his back did feel oddly soothing and he felt his chest rumble, startling himself. 

“Awe, you were finally purring,” the girl mumbled. Right, purring. A thing cats did when they were content. 

“Miss Montgomery?” The vet nurse called from the doorway. 

“Yes!” the girl holding Keith replied. She carried him carefully into the vet's office and set him down on the table on the far side of the room. 

“So is this our little patient? They’re beautiful,” the nurse said, looking over Keith’s body. 

He felt uncomfortable being examined so closely. Moreso, when the she tried to get a look at what his sex was. He hissed when she tried to feel around, backing up against the wall in a feeble attempt to get away. 

“So the receptionist told me you just found this one at the campus without a collar?” she said, turning to the girl who’d brought him here.

“Yes ma’am. I’m pretty sure it’s a boy, I took a peek when I picked him up,” she said and Keith felt mildly violated. “I would have thought he was dead with how he stayed asleep through me touching him were it not for the quiet purring.”

“Good, good. I’ll pass a scanner over him to see if he’s chipped and hopefully find his owner. And if he doesn’t have one, then he’s either lost or a very well groomed stray. It’s hard to tell just by his demeanor given he was fine in your arms, but seems fairly uncomfortable being around us right now. He hasn’t tried to bolt yet which is good.” 

The nurse grabbed the scanner and passed it over Keith’s body. When it finished its scan without a sound, the nurse shook her head. 

“Guess he’s not chipped. I’ll get the vet in here to do some tests, make sure he’s not hurt or diseased and then we’ll figure out what to do with him. We’ll probably keep him here for the night to watch him, and then bring him to the shelter where they can keep him for a few days in case the owner is looking for him.”

The girl nodded and said goodbye to him before leaving him with the nurse. He didn’t enjoy being poked and prodded at all and spent most of the time until the actual vet came in avoiding being touched. Eventually they’d had to grab him by the scruff again and administered a sedative to calm him down.

Later, he realized that he didn’t remember much of what had happened after that point, only that he felt like absolute shit. Taking in his surroundings, he realized he was in a large glass cage, lying in a cat bed. It was surprisingly comfy, but he had also found that bench on campus just as comfortable. 

He ate some of the food they’d left for him, realizing that he was starving as he hadn’t eaten since being turned into a cat, as well drank some water before he curled back up in the cat bed, falling asleep quickly. 

He woke up several times throughout the following hours until he watched the vet enter the room his cage was in. 

“Rise and shine sleeping kitty, time to move you to your new temporary home. If you aren’t cooperative we might have to sedate you again, so be a good kitten for me, alright?”

Keith resigned himself to follow her suggestions and let himself be moved into a carrier, wincing every time the car he’d been placed into jerked a little too much. He arrived at the shelter and was placed into one of the bigger cages they had. Eyeing the smaller cages with much smaller cats, he counted himself lucky they were being generous. 

Once he’d been settled in, the shelter worker left the room, and he sighed, curling up around himself.  _ How long am I going to be stuck like this? At least the cages are comfortable enough. _

A noise a few moments later roused him from his thoughts that sounded an awful lot like someone talking. 

“Hey you,” the voice said. “You got a name?” 

Looking up, Keith noticed another cat in the cage opposite his looking right at him.  “Did you just… talk to me?” he asked. 

“Uh, yea, what are you, brain damaged?” 

“It’s been a long few days. And my name is Keith.”

“Odd name for a cat.”

“And what’s yours then?” 

“Me? Well the humans call me Red ‘cause of my fur, but I find myself more of a Scarlet than anything.”

“Your fur looks more orange than red anyway.” 

“I resent that.”

“For a cat you seem to know a lot of vocabulary.”

Scarlet huffed and flicked her tail. “What, are you saying you think everyone is as dumb as you?”

“No, I’m saying I’m not a cat.”

“Wow, dumb and delusional. Hey, Sapph, you hear that? He thinks he’s not a cat.”

A noise that sounded a lot like laughter came from the cage above his. “It’s true,” he said. “Some witch lady turned me into one. I’m twenty-two human years old, which is a pretty long life for a cat, don’t you think?”

“Twenty-two? You don’t look a day over four!” a golden-yellow coloured cat replied from below Scarlet. 

“A witch? Wait a minute, was it that weird old lady with the red face markings?” Scarlet asked.

Keith perked up a little bit. “You know her?”

“We met once when I was still a stray. She pet me and was able to talk to me. Pretty impressive stuff. Said she was a witch and that’s why she could talk to me. So a real bonafide human, eh?”

“All I did was accidentally knock over a statue and next thing I know, I’m like this.”

“That’s rough,” Sapph said.

“Well aside from being stuck in this cage, being a cat is awesome, so I don’t know why you look so upset,” Scarlet added. 

“You’d be upset to if your entire life changed like this!”

“I’m just saying maybe you should try and enjoy your time like this while you can. Maybe you’ll get adopted by some nice kid. Who knows.”

Scarlet eyed him one last time and then curled up in her cage and ignored him. 

Adopted? 

He was so screwed.

Lance McClain wandered through the rows of cats, the shelter worker following behind him while he gazed at each cage, looking for just the right one. 

Turning to the worker he said, “so I’ve never had a cat before, but I’ve been researching a lot about them and I want something that’s a fairly affectionate but also pretty chill? And grooming isn’t an issue, I love spending time brushing my sister’s hair, cat hair would be just as soothing I think. I love the idea of a Maine Coon, but I know those are super expensive and usually require a breeder so maybe something similar enough?”

She looked at him without changing her expression and replied, “we did just find this one cat the other day that was pretty feral at first, but I think he was just scared ‘cause now he’s calmed down a little. We think he’s a Norwegian Forest cat, which are pretty similar to Maine Coons like you were saying. So if you don’t mind a slightly temperamental cat, he might be for you.”

“Show him to me?”

She gestured to a cage a few feet away and Lance took a look into the grating, viewing violet-grey eyes and the faint outline of a cat in the darkness. 

“We can bring him out if you’d like a better look?”

Lance nodded and the worker unlocked the cage, attempting to coax the cat out of its temporary home. 

From inside, Keith was panicking at the prospect of potentially being brought home to someone’s house, especially someone as good looking as the man standing there, who for some reason looked a little familiar. Reluctantly, he let the worker pick him up, remembering the sedative and waking up feeling like the cat equivalent of a hangover. 

He stayed fairly limp in her grasp, only wriggling to try and get more comfortable but he was soon handed off to the man who held him surprisingly well. 

“He seems pretty calm,” Lance said, startling Keith and causing him to dig his claws into Lance’s arms. Damn his animal hearing. When he found that witch… 

His thoughts were stopped by Lance petting him to calm him down and he felt his claws retract and involuntary purring came from his chest. Shit, how did this guy keep him so calm?

“Ow, that kinda hurt, but he seems fine now.”

“He’s reacting better to you than anyone else who’s handled him so far. Maybe it’s fate?” 

Lance looked down at the cat in his arms and smiled when the black haired cat looked back up at him. “I think you’re right. I’ll take him! Now I just need to think of a name…”

“We’ve been calling him Plum since his eyes are kinda purple. But you can name him whatever you want and we’ll put it on the adoption papers.”

Looking deep into Keith’s eyes, the cat could feel his heart beating wildly, and he mentally tried to think if he’d ever learned how fast a cat’s heart beats normally. He hadn’t really thought about paying attention to how fast his heart was beating when he was busy actually  _ being _ a cat. 

“Maybe I’ll call him Smokey?”  _ Smokey, are you for real?  _ “Nah that reminds me too much of the bear and belongs to a grey cat if anything… Hm… Blackey? Oh wow, my inner child is showing.”  _ I’ll say. _ Lance snapped his fingers as best he could while still holding Keith. “I know, I’ll call him Shadow. It’s kinda basic, but you seem like the kinda cat who is content hiding in the shadows, all mysterious and emo,”  _ Rude, _ “Wait! Look at his feet! They look like little fingerless gloves on his paws. That’s actually the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Would it be too basic if I called him Mittens?”  _ Yes. Yes it is basic, and childish and definitely more a girl cat name.  _ “That’s it. Welcome to the McClain family, Mittens.”  _ Shit.  _ “Maybe I’ll give you the middle name Shadow. Do cats have middle names?”

Ignoring the question, the worker started walking back towards the front desk. “Alright then, bring him up to the front with you and we’ll draw up some adoption papers. Do you have a carrier?”

“Yep! It’s just out in my car, so I can put him in there once we’re done in here.”

“Great. Let’s get this all set up then.”

The moment they got back to Lance’s apartment, the man let his new cat roam free to get a lay of the land. Keith could feel Lance watching him and he would lie if he said he wasn’t a little bit curious about the kind of place he would now be calling his home. He just hoped it wouldn’t be for too long. 

Lance had been talking to him the whole ride home, just random little things about himself and his home, and from that, Keith was able to determine that Lance was in his final year of university studying Astrophysics and lived with his best friends Hunk and Pidge in a fair sized three-bedroom apartment just near campus. Lance had said both of them were in engineering, but didn’t go any more specific than that, so Keith would have to guess when he met them. 

According to Lance who was mindlessly talking to his cat, convincing Pidge and Hunk to get a cat had been a whole ordeal of its own, with lots of bribing and promising of payment for any damages the cat may cause, mostly on Pidge’s side. Something about her worrying about it peeing on her stuff. A quick look around told him there were a lot of electronics in their apartment, and Keith guessed that might have been what she was worried about. 

He also noticed that Lance had set up a cat tree already in the corner of their living room and while Keith had always thought they were stupid, looking at it now from an animal perspective, he did think it looked quite comfortable, especially with the sunlight streaming through the large window next to it. 

“So?” a voice behind him said, startling him. It was Lance who had crouched down next to him. “What do you think of your new home?”

Momentarily forgetting he no longer held the capacity to speak human language, Keith tried to reply and ended up meowing at the man. The sound made Lance smile and pick Keith up, rubbing their faces together and cooing, “ohh you like your new home, don’t you? Yes you do.”

It took all Keith’s willpower not to bite him. He was lucky he smelled good.

Keith spent the next few hours being watched by Lance while he did everything which mostly included laying in the sunny spot on the cat tree. Lance had tried to play with him, and while he decided the man wasn’t so bad, he was not about to entertain him like that. Even if that stupid laser pointer was mocking him from across the room. In retaliation, he followed Lance into his room and scratched at the lounge chair which he hadn’t been too happy about.

Eventually, he heard the front door open and perked up when he heard two new voices, turning his head towards them. 

“Guys! This is Mittens Shadow McClain, the newest member of our family. Mittens, this is Hunk and Pidge,” Lance said gesturing to a tall, wide man, and a shorter, petite girl next to him. 

“That’s what you named your cat? After all that groveling, you named it Mittens?” Pidge asked.

“Tell me he does not look like he’s wearing fingerless gloves on his hand. I just thought it sounded better than Gloves as a cat name.”

“Mittens is such a cute name though,” Hunk added.

Pidge rolled her eyes. “I’m just gonna call it Shadow then.”

“Him. Mittens is a boy.”

“Even worse.”

Lance tried to coax Keith to join them on the couch when they’d settled in and he spent a moment debating whether or not he wanted to move. He sighed internally and jumped down from the cat tree over to where the three friends were sitting, opting to ignore Lance’s leg patting and sat right in the middle of Pidge’s crossed legs, looking directly at his “owner” as he did so. 

Pidge sent Lance a smug glance and he pouted, crossing his arms over his chest. 

Keith couldn’t help but notice he was quite cute when he did that. 

Keith noticed a lot more about Lance in the following week he lived with the trio of students. 

First, Lance was loud a solid 95% of the time and most of that remaining 5% was spent sleeping. From the moment he woke up, to the moment he went to bed, Keith didn’t think Lance stopped talking or making some sort of noise. When his roommates weren’t home, he sang loudly (but rather well) in the shower, and had music playing from his phone or computer almost all the time.

Second, the McClain- Hernández family was  _ huge  _ and Lance loved them all.  There were pictures posted all over his walls of him and various family members across many years. There were two in particular Lance pointed out to him (why he did this to a cat, Keith was unsure); one from Christmas in Cuba where his whole family had shown up to celebrate. All six aunts and uncles and all of their children, great aunts and uncles and their children and their children. There had been almost sixty of them in all for Christmas dinner that year. The other was a picture of him and his grandma who looked almost nothing alike other than their bright blue eyes.

Third, he was an insatiable flirt, who got turned down more often than not. This was something he learned more through Hunk and Pidge than Lance himself. They came home four separate days that week making jabs at him over the girl he’d embarrassed himself in front of that day. Pidge had even picked him up once in front of Lance and said “Shadow, did you know that your owner doesn’t know when to quit? Maybe you could convince him that girls would like him better if he didn’t hit on them all the time,” to which Lance replied, “how will they know I’m into them if I don’t?”

On the subject of his friends, he also learned that the three of them together could be a dangerous combination. They were insanely smart but they did some seriously stupid shit. They’d had to drag Keith outside with them when they’d accidentally set off the building’s fire alarm. They’d been trying to build a miniature rocket and Pidge had gotten a little too enthusiastic about the jet fuel she’d somehow managed to acquire. As well as the fact that Pidge was not in fact her real name, her full name being Katie Holt, making her the sister to Shiro’s friend with whom he’d been in the military with.

The final thing Keith had learned about Lance was that he didn’t sleep well through the night alone. The first three nights he was there, Lance had gotten up and stood on their balcony for a while before sighing and attempting to sleep, only to roll around for another hour before falling into a light sleep state he’d wake up from at the smallest of sounds. Lance had told him about his insomnia one of those first nights. The fourth night, Keith went and curled up next to Lance’s head on the pillow and started to purr when he’d gotten comfortable. Lance managed to sleep through the whole night, and Keith found that he slept pretty well in the bed as well. The two of them shared the bed for the rest of the week and there was a noticeable difference in the way Lance carried himself after a good night’s sleep, which made Keith’s heart flutter in his chest. 

Two weeks later, Keith was still completely at a loss on how to return to being a human-- not that he really minded being a cat though. He didn’t have to worry about making food, was fed regularly, had no money problems, and had a comfortable and warm bed to sleep in every night… He felt he was living the high life, and even entertained Lance and his friends when they tried to play with him every so often. This was mostly because he really enjoyed the scratches behind the ears he got when they were done. 

Plus, he got to know Lance well and could gaze him all he wanted without it being weird. Cats did that kind of thing all the time, right?

He didn’t know whether it was his cat instincts or if it was just fun to chase after, but the laser pointer Lance had purchased often made an appearance. The first few times it was embarrassing, but Lance looked bummed when Keith didn’t go for it and he hated to see Lance looking like that, so he started to entertain him. 

One day, Lance had pulled it out and was flinging the red dot back and forth on the carpet, occasionally having it run up the wall to see how high Keith could jump for it. Keith was pretty impressed with himself when he made it up to above the light switch on the wall. 

In between the living room and the hallway, the students had hung a curtain to block out any light that was coming in from their windows during a movie day, and Lance had the idea to move the dot so it was on the curtains. Keith, having gotten really into the zone, saw it and pounced with all his force to try and get as high up as he could. Instead of climbing up the wall however, he went flying through the curtain and smacked into the wall in the hallway, dazing himself.

He could hear Lance scrambling up from his place on the couch and running over to him. 

“Mittens are you okay? I’m so sorry!” 

Keith was fine, just a little shaken up from the collision. He wasn’t hurt in any way, but that didn’t stop Lance from doting on him for the next hour. In a way it was very sweet. He picked Keith up and brought him to the couch where he placed him on the comfortable pillow and sat down next to him. Lance scratched Keith under the chin and and pet him until Keith had practically melted into the cushion and was purring happily. 

“Are you all better? I’m super sorry little kitten, I didn’t mean it. You can have some popcorn later when we watch our movie alright?”

Keith meowed in response and went back to purring, thinking about deeply Lance actually cared for him. He hadn’t even gotten hurt, but Lance looked like he felt awful for causing it. He wanted to reassure him that he’d done nothing wrong, but the best he could do was purr and crawl into Lance’s lap to show there were no hard feelings. Not being able to talk sucked, but he had to admit Lance was cute when he was upset. 

Lance sighed when he walked through the front door, flopping down on the couch and disrupting the comfy spot Keith has made for himself. 

Absentmindedly he started to scratch Keith behind the ears and he was helpless, melting into his touch, a low purr coming from his chest. 

Lance let out another sigh and Keith made a soft noise, attempting to get the boy to talk about what was bothering him. 

“You ever just see someone that you can’t get out of your head?” he asked. Keith cocked his head to the side and Lance continued. “There was this guy I used to see fairly often at the library. He was always alone, headphones in, and off in his own little world, but it’s been a couple weeks since I last saw him. I don’t even think I realized I’d noticed him as often as I did until he was gone, you know?”

Keith really didn’t. In fact, he felt more like the person Lance was talking about rather than Lance himself in this situation. 

“I don’t even know why he’s in my mind though. Yea he’s cute or whatever, but he has the most awful eighties mullet I’ve ever seen, but it also looks so soft and shiny? And he’s got this stupid red cropped jacket I’ve never not seen him in. He’s worn it in the summer!” 

Keith was listening intently to Lance’s description. It sounded an awful lot like what he looked like as a human, though he wouldn’t say his hairstyle was  _ awful _ …

“He wears these dumb fingerless gloves too! Total biker boy vibes coming from him. Now that I think about it, maybe he owned red motorcycle I used to see parked outside. But his eyes, Mittens. I don’t think I could ever forget them even if I only saw them head on once. They were the most insane grey-purple colour I’ve ever seen... except yours look a lot like his did, now that I think about it.”

Keith practically stopped breathing. If he thought the clothing and hair was him, it was the eye colour that really cemented the fact that Lance had noticed him.

_ Oh my God, Lance tried talking to me once. He was that obnoxious and cute guy who asked if anyone had ever checked  _ me _ out of the library before like a weirdo. Holy shit,  _ Keith thought. 

“I tried to test the waters with him, see if he was into guys during one of the first times I’d noticed him. I used a prime library-themed pick up line and everything, but I think it flew over his head cause he just looked up at me and went ‘uhh no?’ and it was totally adorable even if it was a fail. He was kinda hot in a dark and brooding sort of way. Maybe he moved out of town?”

_ Or maybe he got turned into a cat and lives with you, _ Keith thought immediately.

Lance thought he was cute?

_ Lance had tried to ask him out? _

That had been months ago, just before Shiro had been deployed, and Lance had been watching him for that long?

How in the hell had he not noticed?

Oh right, the whole headphones all the time thing. Plus he’d had a lot on his mind after the Shiro thing. 

Still, his mind was reeling from the fact someone had noticed him enough to remember all these things about him so much later. 

He briefly thought about what would have happened if he’d payed attention to Lance. If he’d understood the pick up line. Maybe this whole cat business would never have happened, and he could have gotten to know Lance in a normal,  _ human _ way. 

Looking up at the boy in question, Keith sincerely wished for the first time since he’d gotten here that he were a human again. 

The following day was much the same when Lance came home. Hunk wasn’t due home for a few hours and Pidge had texted him saying her mom had asked her to come home, but offered no further explanation. He sat on the couch and reached over to turn on the television, flicking through the channels until he gasped, leaning forward and dropping the remote. Looking over to what Lance was gawking at Keith felt his heart lurch at the sight on the screen.

“Oh my god that’s Shiro and Matt!” Lance cried. Keith couldn’t get over the fact that his brother’s face was on the screen with the words ‘found’ underneath them. “Holy shit I need to call Pidge right now.”

Pulling out his phone, he dialed Pidge and the moment she picked up yelled, “PIDGE TURN ON THE NEWS RIGHT NOW WHEREVER YOU ARE. I DON’T CARE JUST DO IT.”

A moment passed and Keith could hear Pidge crying on the other side of the phone call, but he just couldn’t get over the fact that Shiro was  _ alive _ . 

“Oh,  _ that’s _ why you went home. I should have guessed they would have called your parents first, I just got so excited,” Lance said to Pidge. There was some talking from the other phone line and Lance replied, “Do you know anything about Shiro’s family? He has a brother, right?”

More talking from Pidge. “Gone? Like just up and left?” Keith could assume they were talking about him. They must have tried to get in contact with him to let him know that Shiro was home. He wondered how they knew that, but he remembered that Shiro’s back up contacts were the Holts. 

“So are you going to see the two of them when they’re allowed visitors?... You’re already on your way?... Man I hope Shiro is going to be alright… Shit, you don’t say… Alright, let me know how things go… Later Pidgey.”

When Lance hung up, Keith looked up at him, putting two and two together about how Lance knew who Shiro was. Lance turned back to the television to see if there was more to the story, but nothing came up. 

“I’m so happy for Pidge,” Lance said, and Keith wasn’t sure if he was talking to him or just thinking out loud. Turning his head towards his cat, he continued, “and Shiro is like, my hero. The couple of times I met him, he was so cool and kind. Not to mention good looking. The first time we met he was all ‘Lance, right?’ and shook my hand and I swear I almost ascended to heaven in that moment.”

Hearing someone outside of the military talk about his brother so fondly was nice. It wasn’t often regular people recognized his brother, and while usually that kind of talk made him feel shitty, coming from Lance, he felt happy to be related to Shiro.

“Pidge says apparently Shiro had to go in for an amputation, but they don’t know for what yet. Said he was in stable condition, but he hasn’t woken up. I bet he’ll be heartbroken if he finds out they can’t find his brother. Shiro talked highly of him.”

In that moment he didn’t only wish he were human again, he knew he needed to be. His brother was home and he needed to make sure he wasn’t alone when he came home. There were people in real life who noticed his absence and who needed him to be there. 

_ Stupid witch! I need to be human again! For all the stupid shit that happened, I liked being human! _

Keith felt a shooting pain up his spine and next thing he knew he was lying on the floor in front of Lance who was looking down at him in shock and horror.

Keith cocked his head to the side and Lance let out a shriek unlike anything he had ever heard. 

“Lance what the hell?!” Keith shouted and blinked when he realized that he actually heard his voice. Looking down, he noticed that he had hands again. And legs. And that he was stark naked and currently lying on Lance’s floor where a cat should have been. “Oh shit.”

“WHO ARE YOU AND WHY DID YOU JUST TAKE THE PLACE OF MY CAT?”

“Lance-” Keith tried, but was cut off by Lance having a mini panic attack.

“HOW DO YOU KNOW MY NAME?”

“Because I-”

“WHERE IS MITTENS?”

“That’s what I’m trying-”

“I’M FREAKING OUT!”

“LANCE!” Keith shouted, having sat up. Lance stopped freaking out for a moment and just stared at the person sitting in front of him.

“Holy shit, you’re the guy from the library. I think I need to sit down.”

“You are sitting down.”

“Shh! I’m panicking, I’m allowed to not make sense! Holy shit I’m talking to a person who was just a cat. What is happening in my life?”

“Yes Lance, and I would love to explain why I’m here, but first do you think you could get me some sort of clothing?”

Lance looked down and turned bright red realizing that Keith was totally nude. 

“I’ll get right on that,” Lance said and booked it into his room and then back, throwing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt at him.

When Keith was clothed, they sat on the couch and he faced Lance to explain what was going on. 

“So  _ you _ were Mittens?” Lance asked when Keith had finished talking. 

“Yes. Thanks for that ridiculous name by the way. What are you, five?”

“I take you in and shelter you and feed you, and this is the thanks I get?”

Keith stared at Lance who held up his hands defensively. 

“Hey, I’m just saying. This is crazy though! Who knew that kind of magic was real. Honestly, if I hadn’t watched you turn back into a human with my own eyes, I would have never believed you. So wait, why did you turn back into a human then?”

“I think it’s because of seeing Shiro on the TV. Something about me thinking about how I needed to be a human again.”

“Wait, you said you name is Keith, right?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god, you’re Shiro’s brother.”

“Yes, and?”

“DUDE WE NEED TO LEAVE LIKE, RIGHT NOW,” Lance shouted and jumped to his feet.

“Why?”

“Because Pidge is on her way there right now, and Shiro could wake up any moment. You think he wants to wake up and find out his brother has been missing for a month?”

Keith’s eyes widened. “Shit.”

“Yea. I’m like, hella freaking out still, but right now we need to get you to your brother.”

“Dammit, my stuff is still at the witch’s place, but I need to get to Shiro first. Can we take your car?”

“Dude unless you’re planning to walk there, that was the plan. Come on, it’s a long drive and the Holts have a head start.”

On the way there, Lance continued to ask Keith questions about his time as a cat, (“Wait you slept in my bed like every night!” “Yes Lance, because you kept tossing and turning and I was just trying to help.” “Dude that’s really cute but also hella gay.” “You’re bisexual.” “Still gay.”) trying to keep his freak outs to a minimum but ultimately failed. They had to stop the car a half hour in so Lance could throw up on the side of the road (“I feel like Hunk after a trip to Six Flags”). 

Eventually, Lance recalled telling Keith about his crush on the boy from the library, who was actually Keith. 

“Oh my god, please forget I ever said anything ever. Just ignore anything I have said to you since I picked you up at the shelter.”

Keith turned to look out the window to hide his blush but went, “I kinda thought you were annoying because I was trying to just have some quiet time… but I thought you were cute, even if your pickup line was shit.”

“Hey, that was a quality line! Perfect for the library setting!”

“If you’d just asked me out, I might have said yes.”

Lance went quiet, and Keith turned to see that Lance’s face had turned a lovely shade of pink. 

Taking a deep breath Lance asked, “Keith, would you like to go out sometime?”

Laughing, Keith replied, “Sure Lance, that sounds like fun.”

Lance fist pumped, but stopped midway through. 

“What?”

“Dude, you owe me a freaking cat, since I no longer have one.”

Keith blinked a couple of times before bursting out into more laughter. “You know, there’s a cat at the shelter that I think you’ll really like if no one has adopted her yet. Her name is Sapphire.” 

Thinking about it, he decided that if she was still there, he was going to adopt Scarlet as well. 

When they finally arrived, Keith was super anxious about going in. 

“What if they don’t let me in because I don’t have any ID on me?”

“I guarantee the Holts know what you look like and Captain Holt will let you in,” Lance replied. “I’ll wait out in the waiting room alright?” 

“Alright,” Keith said and unbuckled himself. Before they walked in, he turned to Lance he said, “Thank you. I know today has been the craziest day ever, but thanks for only kind of freaking out and for driving me here. I owe you.”

“You can repay me by going on that date. For now, go get your brother.”

Once inside, Lance sat down while Keith went up to the counter and said, “Hi, I’m looking for Takashi Shirogane? I know you guys tried to get into contact with me but I’ve been away and without phone service. My name is Keith Kogane.”

“I need to some ID,” the clerk replied.

“Um, see that’s the problem… I don’t exactly have any on me? Is there any way I could speak to Captain Holt?”

The clerk sighed. “I’ll call him out. Take a seat.” 

Keith didn’t sit but instead paced nervously back and forth until he heard footsteps coming. Looking up, Sam Holt stood there in front of him. 

“Hi Captain Holt,” Keith said quietly.

“Keith! We’ve been worried sick! When we heard that you weren’t able to be contacted we didn’t know what to think. Where have you been?” Looking back he saw Lance sitting there as well. “Lance, what are you doing here?”

“Lance gave me a ride here, and honestly sir, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. I don’t have any ID, so I was hoping you could get me in to see Shiro.”

“Of course! He’s been awake for about an hour now actually, and we didn’t even get the chance to tell him we couldn’t find you yet because of doctors and nurses running in and out, so your timing is perfect. Let’s go.”

Keith gave one last look at Lance who gave him thumbs up and followed Captain Holt into the back and into the room where Shiro and Matt were being looked after. Pidge was standing there and he resisted the urge to run up and give her a hug since she had no idea who he really was. 

The rest of the Holt family and Shiro looked up when the two of them walked in, and Shiro beamed while the Holts looked surprised to see him.

“Keith!” Shiro called weakly from his bed and that’s when the dam broke. Keith’s eyes overflowed with tears and he walked up to Shiro and hesitated for a moment before Shiro nodded his head and the two brothers hugged. 

Shiro only hugged with one arm and when Keith withdrew from the hug, he looked down to see that most of Shiro’s other arm was missing. 

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Shiro assured him. “The rest of me is more or less fine and in one piece.”  

“I’m just happy you’re back.”

“Wait what?” Pidge said loudly from the other side of the room and then turned to look at Keith. “You came here with Lance? How do you know him?”

Keith sighed. “It’s kind of a long story. You’ll have to wait to hear it from Lance, otherwise you won’t believe me.”

Pidge narrowed her eyes, but let it drop and turned her attention back to her brother, who was in similar shape to Shiro, just with both arms still attached and missing half of his left leg. 

“Ooooh, Lance huh? From what I remember, he’s totally your type,” Shiro said with a smirk.

“Shut up,” Keith said, trying to fight down the blush. That was something he did not miss about being a human. “But, we are going on a date.”

Pidge guffawed at that statement, having obviously overheard the statement. “I hope he didn’t use a lame pick up line.”

“The first time he asked me out he did,” Keith replied.

“And you’re still going out with him?”

Keith shrugged. “This time he didn’t so I actually said yes.”

“I kept telling him to just ask people out normally. But  _ nooooo _ , no one listens to Pidge.”

Everyone laughed and for the first time in a while, Keith felt truly happy in his skin. He couldn’t wait to go home with Shiro and go on a date with Lance, and hopefully get to know Hunk and Pidge on a 100% human level.

He never thought he’d ever think about how happy he was to not be a cat anymore. 


End file.
